


A Tale of Two Fathers

by missjmelville



Series: August Fic Challenge [3]
Category: The Following
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Coercion, F/M, Fatherhood, M/M, Mental Coercion, Murder, Past Relationship(s), Post-Season/Series 03, Stockholm Syndrome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-12 18:49:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4490679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missjmelville/pseuds/missjmelville
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I missed a lot of this with Joey you know,” Joe starts conversationally as if Ryan doesn’t know that the reason he missed them was that he was out murdering young women, “I missed my son growing up, but I won’t miss her,” he casts one last lingering glance at the sleeping baby and turns to Ryan.</p><p> </p><p>AU Post S3, Joe is alive, Theo is not, Gwen and Ryan are starting a family together but Joe can never leave well enough alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Day 3 of my August fic challenge. Based on the prompt 'Joe + a unicorn' from Aimi again the bestest bro. All mistakes are mine.

“She really is a beautiful child, Ryan, whatever Gwen’s flaws, the two of you were remarkably compatible,” Joe bends over the crib and strokes the baby’s soft cheek as gently as he would a rare tome. She has Ryan’s pale complexion but a tuft of black hair that is courtesy of Gwen, the eyes blue still, there’s no telling if they’ll change or when. Ryan clenches his fists and bites back the vicious words he wants to yell at Joe, he swallows his anger and it burns inside him slowly but surely destroying him from the inside out.

Joe tugs the lemon yellow blanket up under the baby’s chin, she squirms and makes a soft gurgling noise but the next moment her eyes are closed and her tiny fists curled into the blanket as she falls asleep.

“I missed a lot of this with Joey you know,” Joe starts conversationally as if Ryan doesn’t know that the reason he missed them was that he was out murdering young women, “I missed my son growing up, but I won’t miss her,” he casts one last lingering glance at the sleeping baby and turns to Ryan.

Joe’s smile is soft and warm, as if he’s still looking at the baby, he has no right looking at Ryan like that, not here, not now. He takes a step closer and grimaces as his shoe squelches softly into the carpet, he smoothly steps to the side and wipes the bottom of his shoe off on a cleaner spot of the carpet. The red arc it makes is soft and blurred only, no, the blurring is coming from Ryan’s eyes as tears track down his cheeks.

Gwen’s body is still warm, Ryan’s hands haven’t left the wound at her throat despite the fact that all her blood is spilled out on the carpet now. In the minutes that have passed since Joe entered and expertly slit Gwen’s throat with a straight razor Ryan hasn’t moved since falling to the floor to try and stop the flow of blood. He should have known it would be a futile effort; Joe was always very good at killing.

Joe is remarkably silent as he pushes Ryan out of the way and starts dragging Gwen’s body out of the nursery; Ryan makes a choked noise and stumbles to his feet to follow. There are bloody smears all along the floor and smudged handprints everywhere Ryan touches as he stumbles down the hallway and into the bathroom where Joe is depositing Gwen into the bathtub.

“Why don’t you make yourself useful and clean up in the nursery, hmm?” Joe remarks absently as he starts rummaging in the bathroom cabinet. Ryan knows what Joe is planning to do to Gwen’s body but he can’t make himself leave, he can’t leave her, he turns abruptly to throw up in the toilet, his stomach heaving violently.

He doesn’t look back as he flushes the toilet and leaves the bathroom as quickly as possible.

 

By the time the nursery is clean a noise from the crib pulls him out of his grief, unfortunately there was no saving the carpet so he’d covered it up for now, the smell of bleach and other cleaning fluids is thick in his nostrils coming from the bathroom. Ryan cleans himself quickly in the kitchen sink and starts preparing a bottle before returning to the nursery and gently picking up his daughter.

Her pale blue eyes blink open and then squeeze shut on a yawn as her chubby little arms flail briefly. She’s the most beautiful thing he has ever seen, she looks like Gwen. The lump in his throat is hard to swallow but he does because he has a child to look out for now, he can’t leave her to Joe alone.

Ryan sits on the couch once the bottle is ready and feeds his daughter as he has many times before, her little cheeks puff out with every suck on the teat and the soft noises she makes are the only sound that pierces the silence of the evening. Orange light filters in from the open curtains to spill along the floor and up the walls.

He can hear the bathroom door open down the hall and the sure steady footsteps that can only belong to Joe, a shadow falls over Ryan’s shoulder but he refuses to look up, refuses to take his eyes off his daughter. The shadow moves and then Joe is holding a stuffed unicorn in his hand and tucking it between Ryan and his daughter, he doesn’t flinch but it’s a near thing. He recognises the toy; it’s one of many they’d received in the days after the birth, without a card.

“I’ve always been a part of her life,” Joe states from his place at Ryan’s shoulder, “Just as I’ve always been a part of yours,” His hand settles in Ryan’s hair and strokes softly.

Maybe it won’t be so bad, Ryan thinks, he’ll miss Gwen but maybe everything will turn out okay in the end, he loves his daughter, he’ll do anything for her. Even play house with Joe Carroll if that’s what it’ll take to stay with her and keep her safe. Every instinct in him is screaming to run, to hold his baby close and get away. Instead he sighs softly, relaxes back into the couch, into Joe’s hand at his nape. She stops drinking with a soft hiccup and Joe leans forward with his free hand and carefully plucks the bottle away.

“My sweet Claire,” Joe leans down over Ryan’s shoulder and places a soft kiss to the tuft of black hair, “Our sweet little Claire,” he smiles at Ryan and it’s soft and warm.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 4 of my August fic challenge, this story seemed to latch on and not let go so I decided to continue it for now. I've no idea how long it might become or how long I will be motivated to continue this particular story but I hope I can give it a good run.

A month passed in the blink of an eye, Claire was growing faster every day and it broke Ryan’s heart that Gwen would never see how amazing their daughter was. Ryan had to quit his job because the stress of leaving his daughter alone every day with Joe was almost too much for his heart to take. They already had plans to move away to somewhere more remote, well, Joe had plans.

Despite the fact that he was a serial killer and an escaped felon, Joe was an extremely dedicated father to his new daughter. He didn’t seem to mind being woken every couple of hours during the night to feed her, in fact he seemed rather eager. As charming as ever, Claire was completely taken with her new dad in a matter of days, she would gurgle happily every time Joe held her and wave her little fists in excitement. In no time at all, she got so used to Joe reading her to sleep that it became impossible to get her to sleep any other way.

Every time Ryan thought of calling the FBI or even just Max, the thought of what Joe might do if he found out; it just wasn’t worth the risk. Despite the name change, his daughter was healthy and well cared for and he wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardise that or worse 

Joe seemed to settle into fatherhood as easily as he had serial killing; though it was a safer occupation, sometimes it was no less messy.

 

The move was surprisingly quick and easy, Joe had a vast well of funds that Ryan didn’t want to think where they came from and he’d already picked out a handful of places, he graciously let Ryan have some input then as to which houses he liked best. When they were in agreement, or rather Joe had decided and Ryan numbly nodded along, everything happened within a couple of days and later Ryan would think how suspicious it was and that maybe Joe had set everything up in advance and had only given Ryan the illusion of a choice.

The new nursery was thankfully free of bloodstains on the carpet.

Everything in the house had a distinctly Joe feel to it, from the wingback chairs in the study to the king size canopy bed in the bedroom, one bedroom. It made Ryan sick. The artwork on the walls, the books in the shelves, it was as different from his old home with Gwen as it was possible to be. Yet every day he found himself thinking less of Gwen and the past, and more of his future with his daughter, with Joe.

It took a week of Ryan sleeping on the couch in their new home before Joe could take no more, deciding to do something about it, that’s how Ryan ended up blacking out after dinner and waking at midnight, already in his sleep clothes, and handcuffed to one side of the bed. He really should’ve seen it coming, Joe always got his way in the end and if his idea of happy families was for them to share a bed, then share a bed they would.

Ryan had been thrashing around and struggling for a good five minutes before he realised Joe wasn’t even in the bed with him, the covers were rumpled on the other side though so he had been at one point which meant he was likely feeding Claire. Soft footsteps interrupted Ryan’s internal fuming and just as he was getting ready to start in on Joe, to yell, curse, and maybe cry, he stopped. Claire was tucked securely in Joe’s arms fast asleep, he couldn’t yell, couldn’t scream and rage and cry, he couldn’t wake her up.

“I thought this might help,” Joe murmured softly as he made his way back to the bed but his eyes never left the sleeping bundle in his arms. He came around to Ryan and undid the handcuffs before he carefully manoeuvred his precious cargo into Ryan’s arms as he returned to his side of the bed and climbed in settling the covers around the three of them. With careful prompting, Joe encouraged Ryan to settle Claire in the bed between them.

All anger abruptly fled Ryan as he lay down curled around his baby daughter, he stroked her cheek gently with a finger and couldn’t help smiling when her little hand reached out in sleep to curl around it, she had a remarkable grip. Joe watched fondly with a smile on his face. Ryan and Gwen had never done this, had never let Claire sleep with them, at first she’d been too small, they were scared of hurting her in their sleep but then Gwen had said it would form bad habits later in life. He didn’t care. Right now, this was all he needed.

He drifted off to sleep like that, his body stayed unnaturally still all night as if, even in sleep, he was aware that the tiny body curled up next to him needed to be kept safe. When he woke the next morning in the exact same position, he couldn’t even bring himself to be mad that Joe had ended up bracketing Claire in and had slung an arm around Ryan’s waist. Just this once, everything was perfect.


End file.
